Флорин Деляну пишет:
The term
manaskāra is usually translated in modem Buddhist studies as 'attention', 'mental orientation', etc. In Abhidharma literature, it represents an important psychological function and doctrinal category. The Kosa lists
manaskāra as one of the eleven
mahābhāmikas or functions omnipresent in all mental activity
(sarvacetasi) (cf. AKBh 54,17:
kārikā n, 24). AKBh 54,23 defines it as:
manaskāras cetasa ābhogah, 'manaskāra refers to the orientation of the mind'.The equivalent passage in Xuanzang's translation reads: {иероглифы} or
'manaskāra means that by which the mind is made to be alert' (T29.19a21). De la Vallee Poussin renders thesentence as 'le
manaskāra est l'inflexion
(ābhoga) de la pensee
(cetas)' (Poussin vol. 1, p. 154).The basic meaning of
ābhoga, which comes from the root
bhuj, is 'bending', 'curve', or 'winding'. In the above context, it refers to directing or applying the mind on a cognitive object. One could also say that
ābhoga represents an 'effort' (which is actually one of the derived senses of the word!) made in order 'to curve' or ' to bend' the mind into the desired form. An identical definition is found at Trim 20,11-12 (cf. Tiwary ed. 1967, 40). Sthiramati continues:
ābhujanam ābhogah. ālambane yena cittam abhimukhīkriyate. sa punar ālambane cittadhāraṇakarmā. 'Orientation means being directed. It is that by which the mind is made toface the object. Furthermore, its function is to keep the mind fixed unto the object.' The parallel passage in Xuanzang's translation of the
Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi reads: {иероглифы} (T31.11c6) 'The nature of attention is its being able to alert the mind. Its function is to keep the mind fixed to the object'. (cf. Cook tr. 1999,69, for a somewhat different rendering).
As far as the above sense is regarded,
manaskāra can certainly be translated as 'attention' or'mental orientation'. When clearly referring to this psychological function, I also translate
manaskāra as 'attention'. However, rendering
manaskāra in the
sapta manaskārāh, the key conceptual and technical framework of Yogasthana IV in the SrBh, as 'attention' or 'mental orientation' would not convey its full and exact meaning.
Manaskāra is here more than what 'attention' usually means in English. It represents the very backbone of the spiritual practice leading the yogi to the mastery of the eight meditative attainments (the mundane path) or to the realisation of the Four Noble Truths and consequent Liberation (the supramundane path). Though not common in modern Buddhist studies, translating it as 'contemplation' does, I believe, more justice to this sense. Rendering one word in the source-language by means of two or more different terms in the target-language may upset our sense of balance and uniformity, but such an approach seems unavoidable in quite a few cases. To the extent translation can be said to represent an art, criticism for lack of perfect equivalence may be justifiable (though thisis, admittedly, a classicist argument for uniformity, which a romantic would anyway repudiate!). To the extent translation can be declared to come closer to science, I think there are no a priori reasons which would invalidate the fact that different connotations of one word in the source-language may be reflected by different terms when the target-language has no lexeme sharing a similar or quasi-similar semantic sphere.
A similar rendering for
manaskāra is actually used by Schmithausen (1987a). Other solutions include those put forward by Griffiths (1983, 426-432) and Choi (2001, 77-86). In his translation of a passage in the AbhSamBh parallel to the SrBh (see below), Griffiths renders
manaskāra as 'act of attention'. This seems to me rather weak to convey the sense of intense and repeated exercise which
manaskāra implies. Choi's translation of
manaskāra in the
Xianyang lun passages parallel to the SrBh (see below) as
Konzentrationsakt may be appropriate for the German language, but in English, 'concentration act' or even 'concentration' do not appear to convey the whole intensity of the Sanskrit term.
XX. The Chapter on the Mundane Path (Laukikamarga) in the Sravakabhumi: A Trilingual Edition (Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese), Annotated Translation, and Introductory Study. Volume II
https://icabs.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=344стр. 115
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Тема: Перевод 'manasikāra' (Прочитано 2820 раз)